The Democrats are feeling their oats after taking over the House.
Now that they're in charge, no policy proposal is too radical or crackpot for the resurgent Democrats to peddle it as the Magic Elixir Tonic to cure all ills.
Step right up, folks! Ninety percent tax rate just like the 1950s! Welfare and free money for all! Imagine there's no countries – let's get rid of borders altogether!
It just so happens, the Democrats' cure-all for health care is a decoction of their trusty open-borders snake oil: Let's bring in prescription drugs from Canada where we can get 'em cheaper!
Drug importation has been one of Bernie Sanders' favorite hobby horses, and he continues to ride it despite obvious dangers. He would open our borders to the free flow of drugs – all drugs – from Canada and other countries.
The record shows it's devilishly difficult to ensure pharmaceuticals coming from Canada are what they claim to be on the label.
Several Canadian drug companies have admitted they were selling misbranded and counterfeit drugs in the United States.
One of those companies, Canada Drugs, was shipping health-care providers in the United States prescription drugs that were unapproved in the United States, labeled in foreign languages and did not even have proper instructions for use. They were sourcing these phony drugs from third countries and shuffling them across the border to the U.S.
These drugs were showing up in clinics and brick-and-mortar pharmacies. Canada Drugs sold counterfeit versions of the cancer drugs Avastin and Altuzan to medical clinics in the U.S. Testing revealed the "drugs" contained no active ingredient. The company never notified the FDA that this bogus medicine was being sold to health-care providers in the United States.
Canada Drugs wasn't some fly-by-night operation. It was licensed by the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba, Canada, and according to its website the company and its affiliates have been offering "distance based pharmacy care" since 2001.
Nor was it the only bad apple. One of the pioneers of the Canadian internet pharmacy industry, Andrew Strempler, was convicted and sent to prison for marketing unapproved and counterfeit drugs to Americans.
Counterfeit medications could well be responsible for the death of Prince. The Associated Press reports some of the pills found in Prince's estate falsely labeled as a generic prescription painkiller actually contained a fatal dose of fentanyl. Canadian authorities recently seized a $3 million stash of fentanyl ready to be pressed into counterfeit Oxycontin pills.
The Department of Health of Minnesota (a state that shares a border with Canada) identifies Canada as the major source of fentanyl coming from China into the U.S. The Justice Department charged two Chinese citizens with making tons of fentanyl in China and shipping it to the U.S. via Canada.
The imported drug racket kills American jobs as well as lives. The counterfeit pharmaceutical industry is worth as much as $200 billion annually. That's money essentially stolen from legitimate drug makers and the people they employ. It ends up buying flashy cars for fast-buck operators rather than research and development for life-saving drugs.
Bernie's quack prescription for cross-border pharmaceuticals fits with the Democrats' commitment to the free flow of people across our borders.
And just like that other open-borders scheme, it means fewer jobs and more fatal overdoses for Americans.